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Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia... | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
..scene of one of the most audacious assassinations in history. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
When you look at the story and the details around it, | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
you realise, actually, you just can't make it up. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
The killers, two young women, | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
who say they thought they were just part of a prank show. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
She was quite excited about the whole thing, | 0:00:35 | 0:00:38 | |
because she actually believed that this could have been her new career. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
Controlled by a network of North Korean secret agents. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
The victim - the half-brother of the dictator of North Korea. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
He was cautious. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:08 | |
He didn't want to take unnecessary risks. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:10 | |
Would he be talking about moving to Europe | 0:01:10 | 0:01:12 | |
if he wasn't slightly worried? | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
I'm sure the CIA would have tried very hard to recruit him, | 0:01:15 | 0:01:20 | |
and they may have recruited him. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:22 | |
And behind the assassination, a global web of arms dealing | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
and money-laundering, for North Korea's ruling family. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:32 | |
There is Kim family economy. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
They are making foreign cash from these businesses. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
And a paranoid dictator, bent on nuclear confrontation. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
North Korea is at the last stage of perfecting its nuclear programme, | 0:01:45 | 0:01:50 | |
so I think this crisis is heading toward a finale, if you will. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:55 | |
Why was Kim Jong-nam murdered in Malaysia? | 0:01:57 | 0:02:02 | |
People that say that this was a botch job | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
are not thinking like North Korean intelligence operatives. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
They're not thinking like killers. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:11 | |
I mean, basically, it's a huge terminal. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:42 | |
Once you're inside, it's like a maze. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
There's so many types of people from all walks of life. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
It's nine o'clock in the morning, and an unremarkable-looking man | 0:02:50 | 0:02:54 | |
is checking in for an Air Asia flight to the Chinese city of Macau. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
He went to one of those self check-in kiosks | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
to get his boarding pass. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:05 | |
That's when he was approached by the two ladies. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
They sort of flanked him from left and right. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
Two women appear to bump into him. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
One puts a cloth over his mouth. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
Then, the women walk calmly off, and no-one else seems to notice. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:29 | |
The whole thing has taken less than five seconds. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
I think he immediately felt the effect, | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
probably less than a minute after he was attacked. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
That's why, when you see the CCTV in front of the entrance | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
where he first made contact with the policemen, | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
he was rushing through something. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
But, since it happened so fast, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
they didn't know that this is a serious matter. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
But actually, the person is a normal person. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:59 | |
Security staff lead the man to the airport clinic. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
By the time he was walking towards the clinic, | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
he was already dragging his feet. He was sweating profusely. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:12 | |
His coordination went haywire. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:14 | |
He had a minor seizure, and then he defecated. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
He died in the ambulance. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
By 11.05, I think, he was pronounced dead. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
The dead man was travelling on a North Korean diplomatic passport, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
with the name Kim Chol. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
But, as the pictures went around the world, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
it soon became clear who he really was. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:42 | |
My friend called me and said, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:45 | |
"Aren't you friends with the son of Kim Jong-il?" | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
And I said, "Yeah." | 0:04:50 | 0:04:51 | |
He said, "Isn't it him that got killed in Malaysia?" | 0:04:51 | 0:04:56 | |
And I said, "What?" | 0:04:57 | 0:04:58 | |
And then I looked on the internet, and I could see the image. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:02 | |
Actually, I got an SMS from a friend of mine. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:05 | |
"Have you seen the news?" "No." | 0:05:07 | 0:05:08 | |
And the first reaction I had - "Was it really him?" | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
And then we saw the pictures. It was very sad. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
The dead man was Kim Jong-nam, | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
a member of North Korea's ruling family. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
His father was Kim Jong-il, the ruthless dictator | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
who ruled the secretive police state for 17 years. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:45 | |
For seven decades, the Kim family has run North Korea | 0:05:46 | 0:05:50 | |
through a bizarre personality cult. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:52 | |
They have created a fearsome police state, | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
built on gross and systematic human rights abuses. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
Kim Jong-nam was the product of Kim Jong-il's love affair | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
with a famous North Korean actress. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
His mother was number one film star in my generation. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:15 | |
His mother was a married woman with a daughter. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:24 | |
Every North Korean people knew his mother's name, | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
Song Hye-rim, very popular lady. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
So, Kim Jong-nam was not the son by official marriage. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:36 | |
The boy was brought up in luxury, like a royal prince, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
but his existence was kept secret. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
Kim Jong-nam's childhood was very, very cloistered. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
The ceilings in the house were so high, | 0:06:49 | 0:06:51 | |
they needed to bring in scaffolding to dust the lights. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
There was always the off-chance that Kim Jong-il would be dining | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
with Kim Jong-nam, and so somebody literally goes through | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
a sack of rice and pulls out any irregular, any broken piece of rice. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:08 | |
You are talking a perfect bag of rice, sent to Kim Jong-nam's house. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:14 | |
He was a bit like his father - artistic, I think. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:18 | |
And Kim Jong-il doted on Kim Jong-nam, and when his family, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:29 | |
his mother, aunt, etc, was planning to send him away for education | 0:07:29 | 0:07:36 | |
in foreign country, we know that Kim Jong-il cried. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:41 | |
He wept, and he remonstrated, protested against their plan. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:47 | |
Despite the dictator's surprisingly emotional outpourings, | 0:07:47 | 0:07:52 | |
the women held sway. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
Kim Jong-nam was sent off to school in Geneva. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
My earliest memories of Kim, we were, I think, around 15. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:03 | |
One day we entered in class, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
and we saw that guy who looked like an adult for us. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
We didn't know at the time that he was the son of Kim Jong-il. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:13 | |
I think we didn't even know he was Korean. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
We didn't really care at the time, | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
but we saw him arrive with his little attache case, a black suit, | 0:08:19 | 0:08:24 | |
his hair done just like his dad, you know. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
Back then, I called him Lee. I called him Lee. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
That is what he told us his name was - Lee. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
I think that's what he showed us on his driver's licence, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
I'm not sure. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:35 | |
We loved the fact he had a fake driver's licence. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
We thought it was fake, because he was obviously 15 in our class, | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
but his licence said he was 18, and he was driving, and we loved that. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
Very, very jealous at the time, as all young boys would be. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
Released from his secretive existence inside North Korea, | 0:08:49 | 0:08:53 | |
Kim Jong-nam got his first taste of life in the West. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
I remember it was the beginning of, like, cameras, and he was always | 0:08:58 | 0:09:03 | |
taking his camera to school and filming everybody. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:07 | |
Today, your phone has a camera, but at the time, | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
it was something special to have your own camera. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
I think he was just happy... | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
..to take glimpses of life, you know, to photograph. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
So maybe it was interesting for him to film us...carefree. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:25 | |
But in 1988, that carefree life came to an end. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
The 17-year-old was summoned back to North Korea. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
His father revealed him to the rest of the family, | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
and he was prepared for leadership, North Korean style. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:50 | |
During the 1990s, as North Korea's economy starts to sort of | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
deteriorate, buses of security agents would arrive in a town, | 0:09:55 | 0:09:59 | |
a factory town, overnight. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
They would sit there | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
and then they would start picking people to execute publicly. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
Kim Jong-nam was involved in that, and he was involved | 0:10:07 | 0:10:11 | |
in attending public executions of party and economic officials. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:16 | |
I don't think he had the ice in his veins | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
necessary to do what it took to... | 0:10:19 | 0:10:22 | |
It's not easy to hold a country together | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
the way they're holding a country together. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
There's a certain skill set you need that he didn't have. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
He was a nice boy. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:33 | |
He's got different ideas and he starts to become | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
a rebellious teenager, a rebellious 20-year-old, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
and this does not really sit well with Kim Jong-il. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
Faced with this increasingly brutal and isolated dictatorship, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
Kim Jong-nam wanted out. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
Eventually, his father let him go, | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
but only as far as neighbouring China. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:00 | |
An illustrious corpse in North Korea's game of thrones, | 0:11:11 | 0:11:15 | |
or just accidental death? Kim Jong-un's older half-brother... | 0:11:15 | 0:11:19 | |
It looks like something straight out of the pages of a spy novel. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
North Korean royalty, Kim Jong-nam, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
the estranged, exiled half-brother of leader Kim Jong-un... | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
Within days of Kim's murder, Malaysian police captured | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
the two woman who carried out the attack in the airport. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
Officials say one is an Indonesian, | 0:11:35 | 0:11:37 | |
while the other was carrying a Vietnamese passport... | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
For local journalists, this was a huge international story. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:46 | |
There was an adrenaline rush to it. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:48 | |
It was quite addictive, I have to admit. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
As far as the police are concerned, it was pretty clear cut. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:57 | |
Everything was on CCTV camera. | 0:11:57 | 0:11:59 | |
They had done the act, that was for sure. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:01 | |
But the story was about to take its first sensational twist. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:08 | |
One of the killers, 25-year-old Indonesian Siti Aisyah, | 0:12:12 | 0:12:16 | |
now gave her extraordinary version of what happened. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
She claimed that, six weeks earlier, | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
she'd made a Japanese man called James. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
He'd offered her the media opportunity of a lifetime - | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
work on a YouTube prank show. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
When she met this so-called James, she was asked to watch | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
another lady, to see how the prank was being played. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
She was asked to play about three pranks, and after the pranks, | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
she was paid a certain sum of money. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
And the next day, again, she was taken to the airport, | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
where again, they played about three pranks at the arrival area. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:59 | |
With James, Siti carried out dozens of filmed pranks | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
on people she thought were unsuspecting members of the public. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
He told her she was becoming a big star. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
Siti posted this video on Facebook. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
When we go... When we... | 0:13:19 | 0:13:21 | |
The man she knew as James seemed a little camera shy. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
Now, Siti was a social escort, and she was also a masseuse, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:33 | |
and her income wasn't very high, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
and she didn't quite like the job that she was doing. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
And when she was introduced to play these pranks, | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
she was quite excited about the whole thing. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
She even told all her friends about the pranks that she played. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
Because she actually believed | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
that that this could have been her new career. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:55 | |
The second woman involved in the attack | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
was 28-year-old Doan Thi Huong. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
She came from over 1,000 miles away, in Hanoi, Vietnam, | 0:14:05 | 0:14:09 | |
where she worked in a bar, and dreamed of becoming a singer. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
Just like Siti, Doan said she had been rehearsing pranks | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
in cities around Southeast Asia. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
Astonishingly, both women claim they had never met | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
before the fatal prank in Kuala Lumpur airport. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
Now, Siti did not know | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
that Kim Jong-nam died on the day of the incident. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
She only realised after the police came to her. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
We told her what actually happened, | 0:14:41 | 0:14:43 | |
that she had been charged for cases punishable with death, | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
and then she realised how serious the matter was, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
and then she broke down. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
I think the representatives of the two ladies | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
are standing firm on the fact | 0:14:55 | 0:14:59 | |
that these ladies were deceived. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
On the other hand, somebody has to be held accountable for the murder. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
You cannot plead ignorance in your defence. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:09 | |
So, let's see how it pans out. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
By the late 1990s, | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
Kim Jong-nam was living the life of an international playboy. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:22 | |
Based in Macau, known as the Las Vegas of China, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
he was thought to have several wives and at least six children. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
On the whole, he was more like a tycoon, | 0:15:32 | 0:15:37 | |
without taste for hard work of a typical tycoon. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
He was a kind of playboy, typical bourgeoisie playboy mentality. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:46 | |
And he never lacked the money, lots of money to spend. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:51 | |
Lots of money, but he still seemed to be wanting more money. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:55 | |
One of the things Kim Jong-nam liked to do was | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
he did like to treat his friends | 0:16:00 | 0:16:02 | |
to the talents and favours of ladies of the night. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:07 | |
You know, he would say, "I'll pay 10,000 if you want to sleep | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
"with these beautiful Czech women, or these beautiful Chinese women." | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
Kim Jong-nam said, "Look, I'm going to watch," | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
from, I don't know, a keyhole or a closet or something like that. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
"I'm just going to watch." So there was also a degree of voyeurism. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
North Korea's a voyeuristic culture. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
Everyone's under surveillance in North Korea. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
So, how did Kim fund his exotic tastes? | 0:16:31 | 0:16:34 | |
The answer lies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
It was one of his favourite cities. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
When he was here, Kim would often eat at this Korean restaurant. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
Kim Jong-nam had never cut his ties to North Korea. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
In fact, he still played a key role in his father's regime. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
He was running an international business network, | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
generating funds for the family. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
Kim Jong-nam was involved in a whole host of illicit businesses | 0:17:53 | 0:17:57 | |
that North Korea conducted. | 0:17:57 | 0:17:59 | |
He could have been involved in nuclear missile arms trade, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:05 | |
he could have been involved in currency counterfeiting, | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
he could have been involved with some drug smuggling. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
So, it was unclear exactly what he did for a living, | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
but we know that he was involved in this whole host of things, | 0:18:16 | 0:18:20 | |
particularly that involved money and currency | 0:18:20 | 0:18:22 | |
that would go back to North Korea. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
Kim Jong-nam had been mainly involved in | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
what's called technology acquisition, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
so he would buy computer software and send it back to the DPRK. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:33 | |
Some iPhones will have them, | 0:18:33 | 0:18:34 | |
some laptop computers will have certain dual-use technologies, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
which, if you pluck it out, can be used for detonators and missiles. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:42 | |
This is all about the missile programme | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
and nuclear weapons programme, and chemical weapons, | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
but they are looking to use these things in missiles. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
Whether he knew what was in those boxes or not is a different thing, | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
but he must have realised it at some point. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
By 2007, Kim was a wealthy international wheeler dealer, | 0:18:57 | 0:19:02 | |
at the heart of North Korea's business empire. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
Nearly a week after the killing, | 0:19:14 | 0:19:15 | |
the Malaysian police announced their first big breakthrough. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:19 | |
As the investigation progressed, | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
four suspects have been identified... | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
..which could assist us very much in the investigation, | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
and I can confirm today that they have left our country | 0:19:31 | 0:19:36 | |
the very same day the incident happened. Yeah. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
The two foreign woman hadn't been operating alone | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
in Kuala Lumpur airport. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
Malaysian police had studied the CCTV footage from the airport. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
It revealed that at least four North Korean agents | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
were on the ground at the time of the attack. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
The key figure was a man in a grey shirt, | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
identified as 57-year-old Ree Jay-nam. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
He was known to the international intelligence community. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
Ree Jay-nam is a long-time North Korean intelligence operative, | 0:20:57 | 0:21:03 | |
somebody that's got extensive contact overseas. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
Ree Jay-nam coordinates the operation from the coffee shop. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:11 | |
An agent outside gives the signal that the target is arriving. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
Ree identifies him, then walks off. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
As Kim looks at the departure board, | 0:21:19 | 0:21:21 | |
he has no idea he is now surrounded by North Korean secret agents. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
Another signal is given | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
and the two young women separately approach their target. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:32 | |
As the women go in, yet another agent seems to be watching. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
As Kim Jong-nam enters the clinic, | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
another agent appears to follow him and look in on the dying man. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
Before the target was confirmed dead, | 0:22:23 | 0:22:25 | |
the North Korean agents had already made their escape. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
They boarded a plane to Jakarta and flew via Dubai and Vladivostok | 0:22:30 | 0:22:34 | |
to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
It looked like the perfect hit. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:41 | |
The recruitment of two foreigners was done | 0:22:44 | 0:22:46 | |
so that they could remove their fingerprints from this assassination | 0:22:46 | 0:22:49 | |
and essentially point the finger in another direction. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:52 | |
I suspect they were expecting these women, | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
because they didn't use gloves, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:00 | |
to die of this chemical. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:02 | |
But the women went to the bathroom very quickly, | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
washed off the chemical and were able to survive. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
But within days, | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
the Malaysian police were pointing the finger firmly at North Korea. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
It brought an angry response and complete denial. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
It has been seven days since the incident... | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
..but there is no clear evidence on the cause of the death. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
And, at the moment, we cannot trust the investigation | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
by the Malaysian police. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
We have been respecting the Malaysian police | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
and waiting with patience | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
for their fair and accurate investigation result. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:02 | |
On the contrary, they pinned their suspicion on us | 0:24:02 | 0:24:06 | |
and targeted the investigation against us. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:10 | |
Now, there are so many rumours spread to the public | 0:24:11 | 0:24:14 | |
to defame the image | 0:24:14 | 0:24:16 | |
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
The Malaysian police should bear the full responsibility for that. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
Thank you. This is my all comment. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
-Thank you. -REPORTERS CLAMOUR | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
The killing in Kuala Lumpur was the latest chapter | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
in the bloody history of the North Korean regime. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:45 | |
Ten years ago, when his father was alive, | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
Kim Jong-nam was still an important figure. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
But in 2008, the old dictator suffered a debilitating stroke. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:57 | |
He had to choose a successor from among his children. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
It wasn't a strong field. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:09 | |
Kim Jong-il had two daughters, | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
but they were automatically ruled out...for being women. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
He once reportedly complained that all his sons were idle blockheads. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
His oldest son, who he'd doted on as a child, | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
Kim Jong-nam, was now a dissolute international playboy. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
How is your relationship with your brother? | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
There was a mysterious second son. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:41 | |
All the world really knows about him | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
is that he is an Eric Clapton obsessive, | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
who pops up at concerts around the world. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
It left just one last option. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:53 | |
There's this younger guy, he's 23, 24 years old, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
his name's Kim Jong-un, | 0:26:00 | 0:26:02 | |
he starts to get the similar kind of jobs that Kim Jong-nam got. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
Cos this is a family business | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
and so, as long as you're not a chronic alcoholic, | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
and you can sit up straight in your chair, | 0:26:10 | 0:26:12 | |
and you're not mentally retarded, you're going to get a job. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
The Kim family, they trust you, | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
they trust family members, | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
and so, Kim Jong-un's career kind of starts | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
and that's the best option because it's all they know. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:24 | |
That's the life they know - is the strongman dictator. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
With the ageing tyrant's health failing, | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
the youthful Kim Jong-un was anointed successor. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
He now needed a crash course in dictatorship. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
But this training was cut short. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
In December 2011, Kim Jong-il died. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:56 | |
Still in his twenties, Kim Jong-un was now declared supreme leader. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:02 | |
Enemies at home and abroad began to circle. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
In the West, many hoped the regime would reform or collapse. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:12 | |
In order to survive, | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
he needed to show progress on the critical defence systems - | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
this would be the missile systems and the nuclear systems. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
He needed to be able to show that North Korea had a viable deterrent. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:26 | |
North Korea has had nuclear weapons since the 1990s. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
Kim Jong-un soon set about dramatically accelerating | 0:27:36 | 0:27:40 | |
the nuclear missile programme. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:42 | |
So far, he has conducted more than 80 tests, developing missile systems | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
that can deliver nuclear weapons over huge distances. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
North Korea is at the last stage | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
of perfecting its nuclear programme. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
It's last deterrent that they're working on is achieving | 0:28:00 | 0:28:04 | |
a capability of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
to hit New York or Washington | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
and they are getting closer to perfecting that programme, | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
so I think this crisis is heading towards a finale, if you will. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:20 | |
BAND MUSIC PLAYS | 0:28:20 | 0:28:22 | |
CHEERING | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
The young dictator also saw enemies at home. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:29 | |
Within months of assuming power, | 0:28:29 | 0:28:31 | |
he'd begun a brutal purge of senior officials... | 0:28:31 | 0:28:34 | |
anyone who might have challenged him. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:36 | |
Kim Jong-un did not have years or decades | 0:28:38 | 0:28:42 | |
to build his power base within the regime. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:46 | |
He has only had a few years to do something that it took his father | 0:28:46 | 0:28:52 | |
30 years to do. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:55 | |
In order to survive, | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
he had to conduct politics inside the regime | 0:28:57 | 0:29:00 | |
and politics inside North Korea is a blood sport. | 0:29:00 | 0:29:02 | |
It is not something for the weak of heart. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:05 | |
The second most powerful man in North Korea was Kim's uncle, | 0:29:07 | 0:29:11 | |
Jang Song-thaek... | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
For years, the country's second in command. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:16 | |
In December 2013, he was arrested and executed, | 0:29:17 | 0:29:22 | |
blown to pieces with an anti-aircraft gun | 0:29:22 | 0:29:24 | |
while his family was forced to watch on. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:27 | |
As Kim Jong-un's paranoid reign of terror continued, | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
his brother, Kim Jong-nam, | 0:29:32 | 0:29:34 | |
looked increasingly vulnerable. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:36 | |
As the oldest son, he was still a potential rival. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:41 | |
Even worse, he had gone public in his criticism of the succession. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:46 | |
Between 2010 and 2012, | 0:30:15 | 0:30:18 | |
Kim Jong-nam exchanged almost 150 e-mails | 0:30:18 | 0:30:22 | |
with Japanese journalist Yoji Gomi. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:24 | |
In them, Jong-nam repeatedly criticised the decision | 0:30:31 | 0:30:34 | |
to pass power to his half brother. | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
He suggested that the new leader lacked experience | 0:30:39 | 0:30:43 | |
and would end up as nothing but a puppet. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:45 | |
He also criticised how the country was being run. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:49 | |
Kim Jong-nam's experiences studying in Europe | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
and living in China had persuaded him | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
that North Korea should open up and introduce Chinese-style reforms. | 0:30:56 | 0:31:00 | |
Less than a month after Kim Jong-un came to power, | 0:31:40 | 0:31:44 | |
Yoji Gomi published the e-mails. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:46 | |
It was an unforgivable public insult to North Korea's new dictator. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:51 | |
Kim Jong-nam was living on borrowed time. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:54 | |
This was on a narrow list of possibilities | 0:31:54 | 0:31:56 | |
as to how Kim Jong-nam's life was going to turn out for him | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
after his half brother succeeded in North Korea. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
Kim Jong-un has to make decision whether he will let his half brother | 0:32:03 | 0:32:10 | |
wandering around the world from time to time meeting foreign journalists | 0:32:10 | 0:32:15 | |
and saying negative or words against Kim Jong-un's leadership, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:22 | |
or he should eliminate the physical existence of Kim Jong-nam. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:28 | |
100% Kim Jong-un gave the order. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:31 | |
There is no way, I would say zero possibility, | 0:32:31 | 0:32:34 | |
a North Korean agent can kill Kim Jong-nam, | 0:32:34 | 0:32:37 | |
the supreme leader's half brother, | 0:32:37 | 0:32:40 | |
without direct guidance and order and approval by Kim Jong-un himself. | 0:32:40 | 0:32:44 | |
Last week, at Kuala Lumpur Airport, | 0:32:54 | 0:32:56 | |
someone chose to attack Kim Jong-nam. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
Today we learned what killed him and it's even more shocking. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
The half brother of North Korea's leader was assassinated | 0:33:02 | 0:33:06 | |
using the most toxic nerve agent ever created... | 0:33:06 | 0:33:09 | |
The next bombshell from the Malaysian police | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
took the story to a whole new level. | 0:33:12 | 0:33:14 | |
A press release was sent out to media outlets | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
from the Inspector General of Police saying that | 0:33:21 | 0:33:25 | |
his cause of death was due to something known as VX agent, | 0:33:25 | 0:33:29 | |
which was completely new to us. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:31 | |
It sounded like something out of a spy novel. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
The... | 0:33:35 | 0:33:36 | |
chemical that we discovered, | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
which caused the death, | 0:33:39 | 0:33:41 | |
is VX, which is a little weapon... | 0:33:41 | 0:33:45 | |
registered under the... | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
registered as a chemical weapon. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:50 | |
I recall that on Monday morning | 0:33:54 | 0:33:56 | |
I got a call from our Director General's office. | 0:33:56 | 0:33:59 | |
A apparently we had received a note verbale | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
from the Malaysian embassy here asking for the OPCW's assistance | 0:34:05 | 0:34:10 | |
and they wanted some technical assistance. | 0:34:10 | 0:34:12 | |
They wanted some advice from me, | 0:34:12 | 0:34:14 | |
some reference materials and whatnot. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:16 | |
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons | 0:34:19 | 0:34:23 | |
confirmed the astonishing findings about what killed Kim Jong-nam. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:27 | |
VX is a nerve agent. | 0:34:27 | 0:34:29 | |
It's actually the most powerful nerve agent that's known to date. | 0:34:29 | 0:34:33 | |
It's about ten times more powerful than sarin, | 0:34:33 | 0:34:36 | |
about 300 times more powerful than mustard gas | 0:34:36 | 0:34:40 | |
and about 5,000 times more potent than chlorine, | 0:34:40 | 0:34:44 | |
so it's really toxic. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:45 | |
It takes about 10mg to kill an average adult person. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:49 | |
Now, 10mg is just a fraction of a drop, | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
so it doesn't take very much. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:54 | |
It looks like a horrible way to die. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:57 | |
You basically suffocate, you convulse, | 0:34:57 | 0:34:59 | |
you're jerking around, it's not pleasant at all. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:02 | |
VX was first developed | 0:35:06 | 0:35:07 | |
by Britain's Porton Down weapons laboratory in the 1950s. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:12 | |
One of the most lethal weapons of mass destruction, | 0:35:14 | 0:35:17 | |
it has never been used in warfare. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:20 | |
Why use a chemical VX nerve agent in a public international airport? | 0:35:20 | 0:35:25 | |
So many things could have gone wrong. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
One of the ladies could have just done it wrong | 0:35:27 | 0:35:30 | |
with somebody else just by tripping. So many accidental possibilities. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:33 | |
You needed something that would kill him, | 0:35:33 | 0:35:37 | |
but that you would have the lag time, or the delay, in the death | 0:35:37 | 0:35:42 | |
that would allow the North Koreans to get out of the country. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:46 | |
If you slit his throat, | 0:35:46 | 0:35:47 | |
one, you can't do it in a public place. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:50 | |
Two, you can't use foreign agents that you have duped into thinking | 0:35:50 | 0:35:55 | |
that this is some sort of a... a game show. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:58 | |
And I think Kim Jong-un wanted to make a point | 0:35:58 | 0:36:01 | |
to any would-be rivals, potential opponents, defectors out there, | 0:36:01 | 0:36:05 | |
saying, "I can kill you in any manner." | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
I think he wanted it to be public. He wanted the whole world to know. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:11 | |
North Korea's nuclear weapons programme has left it isolated | 0:36:11 | 0:36:15 | |
from the international community. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:17 | |
This public display of a chemical weapon as powerful as VX | 0:36:18 | 0:36:22 | |
was another act of defiance. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:24 | |
VX is banned under the International Chemical Weapons Convention. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:29 | |
There are currently 192 member states | 0:36:29 | 0:36:33 | |
that are signed up for the Convention, | 0:36:33 | 0:36:35 | |
that's almost the full world. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:37 | |
There are four hold-outs - Egypt, Israel, | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
South Sudan and North Korea - | 0:36:40 | 0:36:42 | |
and we have sent a number of messages to North Korea | 0:36:42 | 0:36:45 | |
asking them to accede to the convention. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:47 | |
Chemical weapons of mass destruction pose a direct threat | 0:36:47 | 0:36:51 | |
to North Korea's neighbours in the region. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:53 | |
The South Korean capital Seoul is just 35 miles from the border. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:58 | |
Chemical agents, in general, used in a military context, | 0:36:58 | 0:37:03 | |
can be loaded into bombs, mines, mortars, that type of thing. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:07 | |
All chemical agents could kill huge numbers of people | 0:37:07 | 0:37:11 | |
if it's delivered...effectively for their purposes. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:15 | |
In response, North Korea poured scorn on the idea | 0:37:21 | 0:37:25 | |
that VX nerve agent could be used to kill the man | 0:37:25 | 0:37:28 | |
they were still calling Kim Chol. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:30 | |
How is it possible two female ladies, | 0:37:32 | 0:37:36 | |
who used their bare hands to contain the material, | 0:37:36 | 0:37:40 | |
and applied to the face of the victim | 0:37:40 | 0:37:44 | |
that the two ladies survived? | 0:37:44 | 0:37:47 | |
There's no single person or passenger... | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
..who got contaminated... | 0:37:51 | 0:37:52 | |
..or affected. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:55 | |
According to the information we have... | 0:37:55 | 0:37:57 | |
..Kim Chol has health problems. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:01 | |
He has a record of myocardial infarction disease, | 0:38:02 | 0:38:06 | |
in other words, heart disease. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:09 | |
Therefore, this is a strong indication | 0:38:09 | 0:38:12 | |
that the cause of the death... | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
..is the heart attack. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:18 | |
JOUNALISTS CLAMOUR | 0:38:18 | 0:38:21 | |
The diplomatic row between North Korea | 0:38:28 | 0:38:30 | |
and Malaysia began to escalate | 0:38:30 | 0:38:33 | |
and it raised some awkward questions for the Malaysian authorities. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:37 | |
The Kim Jong-nam assassination has really thrown up a lot of details | 0:38:40 | 0:38:45 | |
about the broader relationship between Malaysia and North Korea. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:49 | |
We now know through some of these details coming out about the case, | 0:38:51 | 0:38:55 | |
but also other investigations that have arisen at the same time, | 0:38:55 | 0:38:59 | |
that actually North Korean activity in Malaysia | 0:38:59 | 0:39:02 | |
was extremely widespread. | 0:39:02 | 0:39:04 | |
Malaysia was very important country to North Korea. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:09 | |
Actually, Malaysia was regarded a kind of window for North Korea | 0:39:09 | 0:39:15 | |
to go abroad because... | 0:39:15 | 0:39:17 | |
Malaysia is a visa-free country for North Korea. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:22 | |
It was a kind of paradise | 0:39:22 | 0:39:24 | |
for North Korea to expand their business. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:28 | |
It emerged that there had been more than a thousand North Koreans | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
living and working in Malaysia. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:38 | |
The access road to Borneo Highlands, | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
one of the toughest road projects in Malaysia, | 0:40:13 | 0:40:15 | |
with its more than 30% gradient, | 0:40:15 | 0:40:17 | |
completed in 1998 by MKP. | 0:40:17 | 0:40:21 | |
North Korea's influence in Malaysia | 0:41:11 | 0:41:14 | |
went far beyond road building and golf courses. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
This is Glocom, an arms company. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:23 | |
Glocom was a network selling military communications | 0:41:28 | 0:41:33 | |
out of Malaysia, | 0:41:33 | 0:41:35 | |
marketing arms and related material overseas, | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
pretending to be a Malaysian arms manufacturer | 0:41:38 | 0:41:42 | |
but indeed was, behind the scenes, North Korean, | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
selling its technology to parts of Africa, | 0:41:45 | 0:41:49 | |
the Middle East and potentially Southeast Asia. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:51 | |
Malaysia isn't the only country | 0:41:54 | 0:41:56 | |
to play host to North Korean businesses. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
Many have the view that North Korea is actually | 0:42:00 | 0:42:02 | |
extremely, extremely isolated from the international community, | 0:42:02 | 0:42:06 | |
that it doesn't have trade relations with the outside world, bar China, | 0:42:06 | 0:42:10 | |
but the truth couldn't be further from that, actually. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:14 | |
North Korea is very sophisticated in concealing the fact | 0:42:14 | 0:42:19 | |
that it is indeed North Korea doing business overseas. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:22 | |
It's good at hiding in plain sight. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:24 | |
North Korea has been doing this stuff since around 1974, 1975, | 0:42:24 | 0:42:30 | |
so they have been doing this for four decades. | 0:42:30 | 0:42:33 | |
So this is a multibillion dollar... | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
economic activity the North Koreans are involved in. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:40 | |
Even in Europe you can find North Korean business activity. | 0:42:42 | 0:42:47 | |
North Korea's national insurance company was able | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
to operate in the UK. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:52 | |
It's not believed that North Korea has strong... | 0:42:52 | 0:42:56 | |
links in the conventional sense to the United States, | 0:42:56 | 0:42:59 | |
but we have seen that North Korea is able to access | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
products from the United States of America. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:05 | |
Kim Jong-un's motorcade was armoured in the United States | 0:43:05 | 0:43:09 | |
and then re-exported to North Korea | 0:43:09 | 0:43:11 | |
without, seemingly, the knowledge of US customs authorities. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:15 | |
You need to understand that North Korea essentially has | 0:43:18 | 0:43:20 | |
three different economies. | 0:43:20 | 0:43:22 | |
You have the normal national economy, | 0:43:22 | 0:43:24 | |
you have the defence economy, | 0:43:24 | 0:43:26 | |
and then you have the royal economy. | 0:43:26 | 0:43:29 | |
The royal economy is an international business network | 0:43:30 | 0:43:33 | |
which funds the lavish lifestyle of the Kim family. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:37 | |
Most of the money goes through a mysterious government department | 0:43:37 | 0:43:41 | |
called Office 39. | 0:43:41 | 0:43:43 | |
Well, on paper, Office 39 is just another department | 0:43:43 | 0:43:48 | |
in the Korean Worker's Party, | 0:43:48 | 0:43:50 | |
but, in practice, Office 39 is the ultimate slush fund. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:57 | |
It mixes both illicit and licit activity | 0:43:57 | 0:44:00 | |
and creates that kind of support | 0:44:00 | 0:44:04 | |
internally in North Korea to keep the leadership and the elite happy. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:08 | |
Office 39 is thought to bring in up to £1 billion a year | 0:44:12 | 0:44:16 | |
for the Kim family. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:18 | |
The population of North Korea lives in desperate poverty. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:25 | |
A famine in the 1990s is thought to have killed | 0:44:25 | 0:44:28 | |
up to two million people. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:29 | |
While ordinary North Koreans go hungry, | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
a huge proportion of national income is diverted to the ruling clique. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:38 | |
Our company, insurance company, | 0:44:40 | 0:44:42 | |
was totally out of control of the cabinet | 0:44:42 | 0:44:47 | |
and of the finance ministry | 0:44:47 | 0:44:50 | |
and of the central bank. | 0:44:50 | 0:44:52 | |
So, out of the system that is Kim family economy, | 0:44:54 | 0:44:58 | |
they are making foreign cash from these businesses. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
So we make money and withdraw | 0:45:01 | 0:45:07 | |
20 million US dollar cash every year... | 0:45:07 | 0:45:11 | |
for Kim Jong-il's birthday. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:14 | |
So we keep them, count them and put them in 20 boxes, one million each. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:20 | |
It was regarded as one of the best profitable organisations | 0:45:20 | 0:45:24 | |
in North Korea, in Pyongyang, | 0:45:24 | 0:45:26 | |
and we enjoyed benefit for that. | 0:45:26 | 0:45:29 | |
The people working for overseas departments and offices | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
are required to pay 30,000 to 50,000 euros a year. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
In North Korea, all the foreign currency is calculated in euros | 0:45:41 | 0:45:45 | |
because US dollars are considered the currency of US imperialism. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:49 | |
But when they actually take back cash, | 0:45:50 | 0:45:52 | |
they carry dollars, not euros. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:54 | |
It isn't difficult to take back 20,000 to 30,000 | 0:45:55 | 0:45:58 | |
because it isn't bulky and it can be carried in a bag. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:02 | |
These are people that are highly capable of figuring out | 0:46:04 | 0:46:08 | |
how to procure money and assets for the Kim family. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:13 | |
These are people that can change their location | 0:46:13 | 0:46:17 | |
and their mode of operation, | 0:46:17 | 0:46:20 | |
and even their identity, constantly shifting, | 0:46:20 | 0:46:24 | |
so that authorities around the world | 0:46:24 | 0:46:26 | |
find it very difficult to track them. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:29 | |
This revenue has allowed Kim Jong-un to spend an estimated £500m | 0:46:33 | 0:46:38 | |
on luxury goods for himself and the ruling elite. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:43 | |
Since 2006, the international community has imposed | 0:46:46 | 0:46:50 | |
economic sanctions on the regime. | 0:46:50 | 0:46:52 | |
Recently, even the country closest to North Korea, China, | 0:46:53 | 0:46:57 | |
has agreed to sanctions aimed at stopping Kim's nuclear programme. | 0:46:57 | 0:47:01 | |
I always say that UN sanctions on North Korea | 0:47:02 | 0:47:05 | |
are like an expanding sieve. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:07 | |
No single one of the sanctions measures | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
that have been put in place against North Korea at the UN level | 0:47:09 | 0:47:13 | |
enjoys robust, global implementation. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:17 | |
If China systemically implemented the sanctions | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
at the UN that it has agreed to, that would be a huge step forward. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:25 | |
But actually, it's not just China that's important here. | 0:47:25 | 0:47:27 | |
There's so many countries around the world | 0:47:27 | 0:47:29 | |
that have those North Korean business communities, | 0:47:29 | 0:47:31 | |
that have those political ties still to North Korea, | 0:47:31 | 0:47:33 | |
that aren't using the leverage that they too have. | 0:47:33 | 0:47:36 | |
One of the main concerns has been Malaysia. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:43 | |
The Malaysian authorities have been accused of, at best, | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
turning a blind eye to North Korean business activities. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:51 | |
We've seen Malaysian politicians, | 0:47:52 | 0:47:55 | |
from various parts of the system, actually involved | 0:47:55 | 0:47:58 | |
in North Korean business taking place in Southeast Asia | 0:47:58 | 0:48:01 | |
and the more we look, the more instances of that we seem to find. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:04 | |
So they're completely in the spotlight | 0:48:04 | 0:48:07 | |
and are deeply uncomfortable with it. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:09 | |
Three weeks on from the death of Kim Jong-nam, | 0:48:17 | 0:48:20 | |
pressure was building on the Malaysian government | 0:48:20 | 0:48:23 | |
to take action against North Korea. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:25 | |
Finally, they expelled the North Korean ambassador. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
SHOUTING | 0:48:32 | 0:48:35 | |
I express grave concern over the extreme measures | 0:48:35 | 0:48:39 | |
taken by the Malaysian government, | 0:48:39 | 0:48:41 | |
doing great harm to the bilateral relations, | 0:48:41 | 0:48:44 | |
which has a history of more than 40 years. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:46 | |
North Korea was prepared to sacrifice the friendly relations | 0:48:49 | 0:48:53 | |
for that particular assassination - | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 | |
that was that much important to North Korean regime. | 0:48:56 | 0:49:00 | |
The diplomatic confrontation between the two countries continued. | 0:49:04 | 0:49:08 | |
It emerged that three more suspects in the assassination | 0:49:08 | 0:49:11 | |
were holed up in the North Korean embassy. | 0:49:11 | 0:49:14 | |
The Malaysian government was forced to let them leave the country | 0:49:17 | 0:49:20 | |
in return for the release of nine of its own diplomats held in Pyongyang. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:25 | |
All the North Korean suspects had got away. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:29 | |
For high-ranking North Korean defectors brave enough to speak out, | 0:49:30 | 0:49:34 | |
it felt like a betrayal. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:36 | |
I was very much disappointed by the outcome | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
of the Malaysian government's decision to let free | 0:49:39 | 0:49:43 | |
all those North Korean suspects. | 0:49:43 | 0:49:46 | |
In the past, North Korea was engaged | 0:49:47 | 0:49:50 | |
in a lot of international terrorist incidents, | 0:49:50 | 0:49:53 | |
but there was no proof, but this time | 0:49:53 | 0:49:56 | |
it was a proof and it was shown | 0:49:56 | 0:49:59 | |
to everyone in the world by CCTV coverage. | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
But the outcome of this investigation | 0:50:02 | 0:50:09 | |
was very disappointing. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:12 | |
With the North Korean agents off the hook... | 0:50:22 | 0:50:25 | |
..it left only the two young women facing prosecution. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
When the two women arrive, it was like Mission: Impossible scene. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:37 | |
Of course everybody just run and scramble for picture. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:41 | |
And the commandos, they shout at us and ask us to stay where we are. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:45 | |
I've never seen such thing. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:47 | |
It's a moment where everybody wants to know | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
what is the law that is being applied to them | 0:50:50 | 0:50:53 | |
and also what is going to happen to them. | 0:50:53 | 0:50:55 | |
The two women have been charged with murder. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:03 | |
The trial is set for October. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:06 | |
If they're found guilty, they will face the death penalty. | 0:51:06 | 0:51:09 | |
The police believe they have a strong case | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
and say they will call more than 30 witnesses. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
But the lawyer for Siti Aisyah believes | 0:51:17 | 0:51:20 | |
that there cannot be a fair trial. | 0:51:20 | 0:51:22 | |
This case is somewhat mysterious in many ways | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
and also it involves a question of politics. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:30 | |
Now, nine Malaysians were held hostage in North Korea. | 0:51:30 | 0:51:34 | |
Now in exchange of those nine hostages, | 0:51:34 | 0:51:37 | |
four suspects were allowed to go back to Korea. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:40 | |
Now those four suspects may be very vital to the defence | 0:51:40 | 0:51:44 | |
and, had they been allowed... | 0:51:44 | 0:51:46 | |
Now that they have been allowed to go back, | 0:51:46 | 0:51:48 | |
that would severely compromise the defence case. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:51 | |
They must allow these two girls to go. | 0:51:51 | 0:51:53 | |
They should not charge them. | 0:51:53 | 0:51:56 | |
They should reconsider the case | 0:51:56 | 0:51:58 | |
because what they have done is you have compromised their defence | 0:51:58 | 0:52:02 | |
and that would have caused a miscarriage of justice. | 0:52:02 | 0:52:05 | |
I think that they were duped into taking part | 0:52:07 | 0:52:12 | |
in something that they may have thought | 0:52:12 | 0:52:15 | |
may not be completely above board, | 0:52:15 | 0:52:18 | |
but I don't think they had any idea | 0:52:18 | 0:52:20 | |
what they were getting themselves into | 0:52:20 | 0:52:22 | |
and unfortunately they've been left holding the bag. | 0:52:22 | 0:52:25 | |
Six weeks after the attack, | 0:52:46 | 0:52:48 | |
the body was finally flown back to North Korea. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:51 | |
North Korea is still adamant that the dead man was not Kim Jong-nam, | 0:52:54 | 0:52:58 | |
but a citizen called Kim Chol. | 0:52:58 | 0:53:00 | |
It's impossible to know how the North Korean regime | 0:53:03 | 0:53:06 | |
will view the results of this extraordinary operation. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
Of course, that was not completely successful. | 0:53:13 | 0:53:16 | |
They left behind so many traces of North Korean involvement | 0:53:16 | 0:53:20 | |
and this will lead to the embarrassment | 0:53:20 | 0:53:23 | |
both of Malaysia and North Korea, too. | 0:53:23 | 0:53:26 | |
The operation could have gone smoother. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:32 | |
I'm sure they wanted to get all the North Korea agents out | 0:53:32 | 0:53:34 | |
and that was the plan, and that fell apart, and that went wrong. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:38 | |
So the operation, by no means, was perfect. | 0:53:38 | 0:53:41 | |
But, at the end of the day, | 0:53:41 | 0:53:42 | |
Kim Jong-nam is dead and Kim Jong-un made a point - | 0:53:42 | 0:53:45 | |
that no-one is safe. | 0:53:45 | 0:53:47 | |
The mission was a success in the fact that they killed Kim Jong-nam. | 0:53:51 | 0:53:55 | |
None of the North Korean nationals implicated in this assassination | 0:53:55 | 0:53:58 | |
has been brought for criminal charges. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:01 | |
People that say that this was a botched job | 0:54:02 | 0:54:05 | |
are not thinking like North Korean intelligence operatives. | 0:54:05 | 0:54:09 | |
They're not thinking like killers. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:11 | |
North Korea recently launched an intercontinental ballistic missile | 0:54:12 | 0:54:17 | |
that they claim could hit mainland USA. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:19 | |
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest | 0:54:19 | 0:54:23 | |
for more than 50 years. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:25 | |
In the midst of this crisis, | 0:54:26 | 0:54:27 | |
the assassination of Kim Jong-nam angered both China and Malaysia. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:32 | |
So why did it happen? | 0:54:33 | 0:54:35 | |
He text me a message saying, "I'll see you in Geneva. | 0:54:37 | 0:54:40 | |
"I'll be back in three days." | 0:54:40 | 0:54:41 | |
He was like coming back to Geneva to... | 0:54:41 | 0:54:44 | |
search back all his youth, | 0:54:44 | 0:54:47 | |
like part of a time where we had | 0:54:47 | 0:54:49 | |
nothing to think about, | 0:54:49 | 0:54:51 | |
nothing to be afraid of. | 0:54:51 | 0:54:52 | |
Kim Jong-nam told his school friends that he wanted to move to Europe | 0:54:52 | 0:54:57 | |
and become a European citizen, | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
in other words, to defect to the West. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:02 | |
I think he let his guard down somewhat in Europe. | 0:55:02 | 0:55:05 | |
He felt more safe and more secure here, | 0:55:05 | 0:55:07 | |
especially in Switzerland. Was he worried? | 0:55:07 | 0:55:09 | |
Yeah, would he be talking about moving to Europe | 0:55:11 | 0:55:13 | |
if he wasn't slightly worried? Probably. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:15 | |
It's not easy to live the life he lives. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:18 | |
OK, maybe he had a bit of money - | 0:55:18 | 0:55:20 | |
we don't even know how much he had - | 0:55:20 | 0:55:22 | |
he was very secretive about it. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:24 | |
But money is not everything. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:26 | |
I mean, if you cannot live freely your life, | 0:55:26 | 0:55:29 | |
then...I'm sure that something breaks inside of you. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:33 | |
Moving to Europe would have been a final break with the regime. | 0:55:35 | 0:55:39 | |
As North Korea's most high-profile defector, | 0:55:42 | 0:55:45 | |
Kim would become an intolerable threat to his half brother. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
From foreign intelligence service's perspective, | 0:55:48 | 0:55:51 | |
this is somebody that you want to get to know, | 0:55:51 | 0:55:53 | |
so I am sure CIA would have tried very hard | 0:55:53 | 0:55:57 | |
to recruit him and they may have recruited him. | 0:55:57 | 0:56:00 | |
Ultimately, I think Kim Jong-un was afraid that, | 0:56:00 | 0:56:03 | |
should hostile powers, like United States or maybe even China, | 0:56:03 | 0:56:07 | |
one day want to have a change in regime, | 0:56:07 | 0:56:10 | |
that they could put Kim Jong-nam | 0:56:10 | 0:56:13 | |
as head of that new leadership in North Korea | 0:56:13 | 0:56:15 | |
because, of course, Kim Jong-nam has legitimacy. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:18 | |
He would have been a fundamentally different leader. | 0:57:04 | 0:57:06 | |
I think it would have been possible for him to carry out reform | 0:57:06 | 0:57:09 | |
and change North Korea. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:11 | |
Give up nuclear weapons. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:13 | |
North Korea's fate, for the people, for the country, | 0:57:13 | 0:57:15 | |
would have been better certainly under Kim Jong-nam. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:18 | |
The present leader eliminated one possible source of threat | 0:57:22 | 0:57:27 | |
to his throne, but I do not believe that makes his throne | 0:57:27 | 0:57:32 | |
more stable or secure. | 0:57:32 | 0:57:34 | |
One of the curses of a tyrant is that you actually never feel secure | 0:57:36 | 0:57:42 | |
in the position of power. | 0:57:42 | 0:57:44 | |
With the threat from his older brother removed, | 0:57:51 | 0:57:54 | |
Kim Jong-un may now feel more secure on his throne, | 0:57:54 | 0:57:58 | |
but the Kim family tree still has many branches. | 0:57:58 | 0:58:02 | |
My name is Kim Han-sol... | 0:58:03 | 0:58:07 | |
from North Korea. | 0:58:07 | 0:58:08 | |
Part of the Kim family. | 0:58:08 | 0:58:10 | |
Here's my passport. | 0:58:10 | 0:58:12 | |
Just three weeks after Kim Jong-nam's death, | 0:58:14 | 0:58:17 | |
this mysterious video was posted by a previously unknown group. | 0:58:17 | 0:58:21 | |
It shows his oldest son. | 0:58:22 | 0:58:24 | |
It shows that he's safe and it shows that he's alive. | 0:58:26 | 0:58:29 | |
Um...and that, you know, | 0:58:29 | 0:58:31 | |
he could be a shadow darkening Kim Jong-un's doorway at some point. | 0:58:31 | 0:58:35 | |
We hope... | 0:58:35 | 0:58:37 | |
We hope this gets better soon, yeah. | 0:58:37 | 0:58:39 |